most quite defaced by digging for sarsden
stones to build my Lord Craven's house in the park." Borough Hill
Camp, in Boxford parish, near Newbury, has little left, so much of the
earth having been removed at various times. Rabbits, too, are great
destroyers, as they disturb the original surface of the ground and
make it difficult for investigators to make out anything with
certainty.

Sometimes local tradition, which is wonderfully long-lived, helps the
archaeologist in his discoveries. An old man told an antiquary that a
certain barrow in his parish was haunted by the ghost of a soldier who
wore golden armour. The antiquary determined to investigate and dug
into the barrow, and there found the body of a man with a gold or
bronze breastplate. I am not sure whether the armour was gold or
bronze. Now here is an amazing instance of folk-memory. The chieftain
was buried probably in Anglo-Saxon times, or possibly earlier. During
thirteen hundred years, at least, the memory of that burial has been
handed down from father to son until the present day. It almost seems
incredible.

It seems something like sacrilege to disturb the resting-places of our
prehistoric ancestors, and to dig into barrows and examine their
contents. But much knowledge of the history and manners and customs of
the early inhabitants of our island has been gained by these
investigations. Year by year this knowledge grows owing to the patient
labours of industrious antiquaries, and perhaps our predecessors would
not mind very much the disturbing of their remains, if they reflected
that we are getting to know them better by this means, and are almost
on speaking terms with the makers of stone axes, celts and
arrow-heads, and are great admirers of their skill and ingenuity. It
is important that all these monuments of antiquity should be carefully
preserved, that plans should be made of them, and systematic
investigations undertaken by competent and skilled antiquaries. The
old stone monuments and the later Celtic crosses should be rescued
from serving such purposes as brook bridges, stone walls,
stepping-stones, and gate-posts and reared again on their original
sites. They are of national importance, and the nation should do this.

[Illustration: Half-timber Cottages, Waterside, Evesham]

CHAPTER IX

CATHEDRAL CITIES AND ABBEY TOWNS

There is always an air of quietude and restfulness about an ordinary
cathedral city. Some of our cathedrals are